Koranic duels ease terror

[rawtribe]

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0204/p01s04-wome.html

When Judge Hamoud al-Hitar announced that he and four other Islamic scholars would challenge Yemen's Al Qaeda prisoners to a theological contest, Western antiterrorism experts warned that this high-stakes gamble would end in disaster.


Nervous as he faced five captured, yet defiant, Al Qaeda members in a Sanaa prison, Judge Hitar was inclined to agree. But banishing his doubts, the youthful cleric threw down the gauntlet, in the hope of bringing peace to his troubled homeland.


"If you can convince us that your ideas are justified by the Koran, then we will join you in your struggle," Hitar told the militants. "But if we succeed in convincing you of our ideas, then you must agree to renounce violence."


The prisoners eagerly agreed.

[yardwork]

1. Very interesting!

Maybe the concept of talking to people instead of simply attacking them will catch on. We used to have this idea in the U.S. We called it "diplomacy."

[LostInAnomie]

2. Use the mind instead of the fist.

If only the reactionary idiots in our country could do the same.

[Lone_Wolf_Moderate]

3. Compelling. Very compelling.

The idea sounds neat. While this won't replace a lot of our current antiterrorism efforts on the security front, a large chunk of this war against Islamic extremism is an ideological one, and if we can convert them from their fanatical agendas, using their own texts, then I say, huzzah.